French businessman, billionaire and politician Olivia Dassault was killed today (Sunday) in a helicopter crash near his home in the Normandy region of western France.
Dassault, who served as a Member of Parliament for the Republican Party, led the Dassault Aviation and Defense Corporation, which was founded by his grandfather, a pioneer in military aviation, a Holocaust survivor and a friend of Israel, Marcel Dassault.
The helicopter pilot was also killed in the crash and it apparently occurred due to a technical failure in the helicopter. Dassault served as a fighter pilot in the French Air Force and headed the family corporation after his father’s death. He served as a Member of Parliament and was considered conservative in his views.
French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to Dassault on Twitter and wrote that he was “a local leader, a parliamentarian, a commander in the Air Force in reserve and throughout his life he never stopped serving his country. He loved France.”
Dassault’s grandfather, Marcel Dassault, a member of a Jewish family, set up the family airline with his own hands and manufactured fighter jets for the French Air Force. After the German occupation in 1940, he was blackmailed by the Nazis into collaborating with them. After refusing, and ordering the company to hide the company’s secrets from the Nazis, he was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp.
Dassault survived the Holocaust and although he converted to Christianity, remained an ardent Zionist. He willingly cooperated in the arms deals that brought to Israel the advanced Mister, Oregon and Mirage aircraft, and even after the French arms embargo on Israel he continued to deliver plans and engines for the Israeli defense industry.